(1495? - 1540)
[1]

By

Rand Winburn

 Robert Barnes was educated in one of the finest universities in Mediaeval Europe – the Belgian University of Louvain,[2] before coming to Cambridge University as Prior and Master of the Augustinian Order. He brought a high standard of education to the Order, drawing other students from the outside, Miles Coverdale among them. Paul’s Epistles were studied and taught in-depth.

 Barnes excelled in polemic debates, preaching against the hypocrite bishops, yet was not converted to the true faith until Master Bilney’s witness. In 1525, the Sunday before Christmas, Barnes preached his new-found Protestant faith, even quoting Luther, at St. Edward’s Church, Cambridge. Soon after he was accused of heresy by his prestigious adversaries.

 Dr. Barnes became the spearhead who attracted gatherings of similar-minded students at what was to be called The White Horse, or Germany – a slur against the so-called ‘heretical’ Protestant Germans.

 Refusing to recant, Barnes wrote a work for King Henry VIII, defending his position. In 1526, Barnes was arrested, as search was made for Luther’s books, as well as other German Protestant works. Brought to London, he was examined by Cardinal Wolsey and his fellow theologians.

 “What! Master Doctor,” said the Cardinal, “had you not a sufficient scope in the Scriptures to teach the people, but that my golden shoes, my pole-axes, my pillars, my golden cushions, my crosses did so sore offend you, that you must make us ridiculum caput [3] amongst the people? We were jollily that day laughed to scorn. Verily it was a sermon more fit to be preached on a stage, than in a pulpit; for at the last you said, I wear a pair of red gloves (I should say ‘bloody gloves,’ quoth you), that I should not be cold in the midst of my ceremonies.” And Barnes answered, “I spoke nothing but the truth out of the Scriptures, according to my conscience, and according to the old doctors.”

 Admitting the Cardinal possessed as much power in England as the Pope, Barnes was asked if he would submit to the Cardinal and his council. Barnes replied, “I thank your grace for your good will; I will stick to the holy Scripture, and to God’s book, according to the simple talent that God hath lent me.”

 The next day Barnes was brought before a council at Westminster comprising the bishops and abbot. Though they were in the midst of interrogating 5 other men for suspicion of reading Luther and holding Lollard beliefs, they turned their attention to Barnes. Refusing to recant the articles which he had written in his defense,[4] he was relegated to prison until his second appearance later that week.

 After hours of disputing and threats during his second interrogation, the bishops issued the ultimatum: abjure or burn. At first, Dr. Barnes chose burning, but, after much persuasion from his companions, he agreed to abjure.[5] To perform the abjuration, the Cardinal had a public ceremony prepared in St. Paul’s Church, which was overflowing with spectators.

 “The cardinal had a scaffold made on the top of the stairs for himself, with six-and-thirty abbots, mitered priors, and bishops, and he, in his whole pomp, mitered (which Barnes spoke against), sat there enthroned, his chaplains and spiritual doctors in gowns of damask and satin, and he himself in purple; even like a bloody Antichrist. And there was a new pulpit erected on the top of the stairs also, for the bishop of Rochester to preach against Luther and Dr. Barnes; and great baskets full of books standing before them, within the rails, which were commanded…to be burned; and these heretics, after the sermon, to go thrice about the fire, and to east in their faggots. Now, while the sermon was a doing, Dr. Barnes and the [Lollard] men were commanded to kneel down, and ask forgiveness of God, of the catholic church and of the cardinal’s grace; ……….and there did he absolve Dr. Barnes with the others, and showed the people that they were received into the church again.”

 Having been delivered from the Fleet St. jail six months later, he was sent to the Augustinian friars in London, where he underwent further examination, resulting in his being convicted of heresy once more. Cardinal Woolsey ordered Barnes transferred to the Augustinian friars house in Northampton where he was to be burned. Warned by a friend of the fate which awaited him, Robert Barnes faked a suicide note, escaping the country, eventually joining Martin Luther. Under his protection, Barnes wrote a scathing history of the Pontiffs, Acta Romanorum Pontificum, using authoritative Church sources. Finding favor with theologians and nobility, the King of Denmark employed his services as ambassador to Henry VIII. King Henry later gave Barnes a commission to represent him at the marriage of Lady Anne of Cleves. Afterward, an enemy of Barnes, Stephen Gardiner, secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, was responsible for his capture and interrogation at Hampton Court. Still free to preach, Dr. Barnes was again taken prisoner after preaching a sermon in the presence of Gardiner. Once imprisoned in the Tower of London, without trial, Barnes was only to emerge later for his execution.

 “At his death, Dr. Barnes gave great commendations to the king’s majesty, that he should fear God, and maintain religion, and keep marriage undefiled most honorably; and then declared his faith and his articles.”

END

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